I am telling everyone who will listen that
hypnobirthing is the way to go!
Thank you Emily. The experience was really wonderful. Everything went smoothly with a few small exceptions. Laboring at home was wonderful and we arrived at the hospital when I was already 7.5 cm. the transition period between this and 10 was a bit difficult because I was going through the admission process and had to answer a thousand questions and could not focus on me. Once that was done everything went perfectly and I was calm and relaxed and before I knew it my body was pushing the baby down. The doctors and nurses came back in the room when the baby was descending and put me on my back with my legs up (I could have just brought her out in the position that I was laboring in, on my left side). Then just 4 surges and she was out! We were only at the hospital a total of 2 hours from check in until she was in my arms.
It was really a great experience and I am so fortunate for having you and hypnobirthing. I am telling everyone who will listen that hypnobirthing is the way to go!
Thanks again for everything and hope to talk to you soon.
Dear Emily and classmates,
I wanted to let you all know that Bram and I had our baby girl, Annabel Lee Arrington, on Sunday, July 26th at 12:53am. She was 8 pounds 0.1 ounces, just a tiny bit smaller than my son, and looks very similar. I was successful in achieving an epidural-free VBAC, and labor was pretty fast ~ 6 1/2 hours! I wanted to thank you, Emily for your training and expertise, I know it helped both Bram and I immensely. I also wanted to highly recommend the University of Maryland midwifery practice. They made the experience very smooth, along with my nurse who was also great. I really felt like my midwife was my advocate in a sea of nameless medical students, residents, fellows, and attending physicians. Please recommend them to anyone looking for a provider in the Baltimore metro area! I hope everyone had/has a wonderful experience and enjoys their new bundle as much as we are!
Thanks again,
Margaret, Baltimore, Maryland
Dear Emily,
Sorry for writing so late but I have to share with you our happiness. Just like they told us Ariana Lucia was born last Tuesday 4/2/08. It was the best experience ever!!!!!!! My water broke on Tuesday at 4:45 and at 6 my labor started. My Mother in law acme to help with my two oldest and I started with relaxation. Alex came from the restaurant and at 9 we went to meet Karen( the midwife) She was unbelievable !!!! We walked and i had an excellent experience, Alex helped me so, so, so much just the way we practiced in class!
Unbelievable.
I have to tell you that Ariana is such, such a nice baby . She is sooooo good and calm. Of Course she has her temper sometimes but ohhh my she is really unbelievable. I have to give credit to all the natural birth. Thanks a lot!
Please if you could forward the e-mail to the rest of the group i would love to share with them the wonderful experience.
Love,
Daniela Zeppos, North Potomac, Maryland
Hi Dr. Wang!?
I wanted to let you know that my baby boy was born on Sunday March 30, 08 at 2:18am in the morning. I got to experience natural birth just like I wished and changing to a midwife was the best thing I could have ever done. Everything went exactly the way I wanted and he was born into a calm environment. It only took six hours for him to be born and he weighed 8lbs 2oz. Thank you so much for everything you have done for me and my baby!
Karen Marais, Bethesda, Maryland
I'd like to announce the birth of our son, newly named Jackson about 10 minutes ago. He was born Sunday at 3:38 PM after 3 hours of active labor. 8lbs 2oz, 20.5".
In actuality, I was in labor during class and I pretty much knew it. I just practiced my breathing and it worked! After the birth, Joe said I was amazing, and my doula called me a rockstar. I will say that at the end I was not the picture of calmness that we saw in the videos...but the birth was amazing, there is nothing to compare it to.
The hypnobirthing worked wonders and I am really glad I found the class and was diligent about practicing. I wish you all a wonderful birthing experience like Joe and I have just had or better.
Emily, thanks again for everything.
Best, Joe and Tanya, Bethesda, Maryland
We arrived at the Shady Grove hospital 1:15 in the morning. Frequent surges. 90% thinned, 2-3 cm. Moved to labor room, attached hypnoBirthing sign to door and a second sign - 'Hugs before drugs' in room (we left the signs for the next family). The same nurse throughout, totally accepting. Shower - 8 cm at 4 am (only 2 vaginal exams). Urge to breathe down begins. Sits on toilet. Nurse in and out of room. Bearing down intensifies. Moves to sitting in bed. No coaching from nurse, no positioning, no prodding. No doctor - all in surgery. RN receives baby, second nurse pops in - dad announces sex (girl), cord left to pulse, baby immediately rooting, patiently waiting for placenta. About 10 minutes later OB arrives and does minor stitching.
We labored at home, arriving at the hospital at 8 cm. Come to find out, our baby was in a FACE presentation! For those of you who don't know, this is considered an automatic cesarean for most care providers. However, when they discovered a little nose and mouth upon the internal exam at triage, because both me and the baby were doing so well and were 8 cm., they just let me continue doing what I was doing so well. And we did it! We had the baby in 4 hours. We are THRILLED with not only Hypnobirthing, but the care we received. We had wanted a big family (there are like 10+ kids in each of our families) and after our first two, we were afraid this third would be our last. That's why we sought out HB in the first place...to deal with the fear from the first two birth. Now, ironically, after what truly was an odd complication, we feel more confident than ever with birth!
Xavier Michael Paultre was born at 3:39 AM on April 13 weighing in at an impressive 8 pounds, 4 ounces! He was immediately placed on my stomach and Pierre cut the cord after it stopped pulsing. After a lengthy perineal repair and the delivery of a placenta that didn’t want to let go, I was able to breastfeed my little boy (about 40 minutes after delivery). He took to the breast naturally and hasn’t let go since! All in all, the birth was everything I wanted. Short, calm, low-tech and 100% natural! Although I didn’t go into as deep a relaxation as I wanted to with the Hypnobirthing, I was able to use what I needed to from the method. The slow breathing and Affirmations really carried me through. (Afterwards, my sister and mother-in-law told me the Affirmations were so convincing that they thought they were about to give birth!) The presence of my husband, his kind words, the soothing waters of the tub and relaxed atmosphere all contributed my successful Hypnobirth. Total time from first timed surge to delivery: 6 hours and 33 minutes!!!
This was my first child. I was 2 days before my "guess date" and really felt ready for the birth. The night before I sat on the birthing ball and really focused on my child and said the birthing day affirmations. All evening I concentrated on those and telling myself everything was going to go great and that it was time. I woke up the next morning and immediately knew it was the day. I was having surges, and they just felt different from any other "practice" ones I had had in the past. I really wanted to stay at home for as long as possible. My husband had the day off work, and we spent the day organizing the baby's room, our house, our hospital bags, etc.
The contractions stayed about 6-7 minutes apart for most of the day and I really focused on the visualization of satin ribbons. Early evening I lost my birth plug and knew it was almost time. Around 9, I decided I would start to get organized to go in. At around 10:30 pm my water broke at home, and we left for the hospital. During the 10 minute drive, my contractions got quite a bit stronger and were about 3 minutes apart. When I was initially checked around 11:15 pm, I was 4 cm. Because my water had broken, they admitted me. I had planned on doing a natural birth, but at this point my surges were quite a bit stronger than I expected, and I wasn't sure I could handle multiple hours of that intense pressure. After they checked us into our labor room, I felt a strong urge to push. I was rather confused since I had only been 4 cm minutes earlier. I had my husband get a doctor to check to be sure.
When they checked me, I had already progressed to 7.5 cm. I realized then that my labor was going to be very quick and that there would be no time for an epidural, nor did I really want one if it was going to be quick! During the next couple surges I progressed to complete and the doctors and nurses frantically tried to prepare for the little one so desperate to come out in the world!
I "pushed" only a few time, 5-10 minutes. It was very intense, but before I knew it she was out and in my arms. I had not expected to have such a fast birth with my first child. While it was extremely intense, I am grateful, overall it was an amazing experience. I really didn't have time to get my HypnoBirthing cds and such out, but I really feel that the visualizations of blue satin ribbons, and during birth an opening flower really helped me out. Just the experience of HypnoBirthing really helped me to be confident and strong through the strongest of surges.
Claire's membrane's released early on the 24th without any other labor signs. We went into Georgetown hospital and were told to stay there until the birth, whenever that might be. The doctors were keen to induce on the 25th so we set about trying to get things moving more naturally: in the end the sideways walk up/down stairs did the trick.
We had a fairly nice delivery room and Claire's surges started in the evening of the 24th. At that point we were using the hypno CD so Claire could relax. Because of twins we had little choice over an epidural so that was taken around midnight. Claire then used hypnosis until 7.30 am, when the doctor 'woke' Claire up so Isaac could be delivered. Isaac arrived at 7.44 and Imogen at 08:31.
Isaac was head down but Imogen was breach. However both were delivered naturally without any issues (no tearing even). The birth was a very positive experience and the hypnosis techniques I believe made all the difference because Claire had all her energy for the final delivery. We had quite an audience for Imogen because she was breach.
Hi Dr. Wang!?
I guess it started on January 4th. I started having contractions in the middle of the night. We went to the hospital. Everyone there thought that I was in real labor and going to have him, but after about 12 hours the contractions stopped, and they sent me home. From that day on, I had a lot of "braxton hicks" contractions, nearly every 10 minutes. It was a difficult time! My due date was January 21st, so I had a long time to wait.
Then on January 16th I woke up to some cramps. As the morning progressed, my typical braxton hicks kept getting stronger. I thought that it might be the real thing, but after my false labor experience, I was skeptical. I had a doctor's appointment that afternoon, so I waited to see what the doctor would say. At the doctor they hooked me up to the machine, and I was contracting regularly. As I was there, the contractions kept getting stronger and closer together. The doctor told me to go home and relax and call back when they got 3 minutes apart.
When we got home, I took a bath and listened to my cd that you made. It was amazing! My pain went away and time seemed to stop. It was truly an amazing experience. I stayed in the bath all afternoon and all the pain and discomfort I felt earlier stopped. Eventually I started to think that since the pain was gone, it was false labor again. So I got out of the bath and turned off the cd. But I was WRONG- as soon as I stopped relaxing, the pain started again.
Shortly after that we went to the Holy Cross hospital. It was 5pm. My pain was so intense at that point that I opted for the epidural. Everything went very quick, and my son Julian David was born at 10:16pm. It was so fast. It was actually a very enjoyable experience. I feel like I had the best birthing experience possible, and I would not have changed a thing. I am so grateful for my quick labor and for a very healthy son. I contribute my easy labor to the fact that I practiced hypnobirthing all afternoon. I believe that the relaxation helped my body to progress as quickly as it did. Everyone at the hospital was very surprised by my good attitude and how fast it I progressed.
Since then my life has really changed. I love being a mom! I can't wait to see what each new day brings!
Natalie Colter Aguayo, College Park, Maryland
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